This was a busy week in international news affecting U.S. privacy issues, but that’s not to say that it wasn’t an eventful week stateside.

In addition to the recently announced potential replacement to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, it was reported that policymakers in Europe, the U.S., and other nations edged closer to creating a new international data sharing agreement under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. These talks began in late 2020 with the goal of creating an international agreement between OECD nations that would set the ground rules for how national security agencies access people’s information while upholding robust privacy standards to avoid agencies’ overreach.

The OECD’s efforts appear to be motivated by similar purpose and priorities to the negotiations between EU and U.S. policymakers, but the parallel efforts could complicate the uncertain future that has characterized Western data transfer agreements since the invalidation of Privacy Shield in the “Schrems II” decision. 

News from Asia also affected U.S. issues this week. After a decades-long dispute, U.S. regulators could soon gain full access to the auditing reports of a majority of the 200-plus Chinese companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The announcement came in the form of revised securities regulations by Chinese authorities, signaling a rare reversal by Beijing to preserve access to the U.S. securities markets. The dispute originated when Chinese securities regulators prohibited foreign-listed Chinese companies from sharing auditing information with U.S. securities regulators, causing tension between the two economic superpowers over transparency issues. The dispute escalated when U.S. regulators set a 2024 deadline for kicking noncompliant businesses out of the NYSE and Nasdaq index.

Algorithmic technology is increasingly drawing skepticism from governments around the world, including in the U.S.  This week, Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine wrote that widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technology has the potential to cause violations of civil liberties and perpetuate discrimination. Racine introduced legislation, the Stop Discrimination by Algorithms Act, to the D.C. Council which would technology companies accountable if their algorithms are found to discriminate against marginalized persons. 

The calls to regulate AI and algorithms have been growing in the U.S. and around the world. In fact, I wrote last year that China’s effort to regulate AI and algorithms was a first for consumer privacy, and that other nations may follow suit in an effort to control the substantial influence the technologies have on society. 

Companies’ shift to relying on first-party data came into focus this week. The New York Times reported that Apple and Google’s move away from third-party tracking to consent-based data collection have forced companies to reconsider their approaches to tracking users, but some smaller companies can access such first-party data held by Apple and Google through the App Tracking Transparency framework and proposed Privacy Sandbox for Android respectively.

Keep following the IAPP’s Daily Dashboard for news roundups and insights, and I hope to see you next week in Washington, D.C.!